'Beauty and the Beast': What is going on in Season 2?

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Halfway through Season 2, “Beauty and the Beast” seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis. This is not uncommon, but it is a little troubling for a show that used to have a clear focus. So what’s going on?

The source of confusion is simple: Catherine (Kristin Kreuk) and Vincent (Jay Ryan) have a relationship that is, by its very nature, at the center of “Beauty and the Beast.” Unfortunately, television rules dictate that this relationship can never run smoothly. But Cat and Vincent have already done the star-crossed lovers thing and the secretly-dating thing and the disappeared-beloved thing and even the amnesia thing.

What’s left? The answer seems to be the dating-other-people-and-distracting-everyone-with-a-new-plot thing. As this extreme hyphenation indicates, this isn’t the simplest solution for any show.

After the “Held Hostage” episode of “Beauty and the Beast,” we have Vincent dating Tori and Cat semi-dating Gabe. The Vincent-Tori relationship is somewhat complicated by Tori’s unpredictability and Vincent’s sudden descent into being a jerk most of the time. Catherine and Gabe are hindered by everyone knowing full well that Cat is so not over Vincent yet.

Happening at the same time is a new and odd search for a mystical gemstone that exerts a strange hold on beasts, has something to do with a shackle Tori’s dad hid, used to belong to Catherine’s ancestor and is being sought by a variety of nefarious types. Also, the FBI wants it.

The result of this could hardly be anything but confusion for fans who tuned in to “Beauty and the Beast” for a complicated-but-straightforward love story with a bit of crime-solving on the side. Now, audiences are supposed to question whether beasts existed in prehistoric (or maybe just 19th-century) times. The central relationship of Cat and Vincent, meanwhile, has vanished as if it never existed in the first place.

We will just have to hope that “Beauty and the Beast” has a destination in mind and that the journey becomes clearer soon.